Green Party Barbican Motion
January 22, 2009 12:08 AM
To expand just a little, everything contained in this motion has largely been rehearsed
in the previous motion.
The only things I have to add relate to the issue of a trust and the future use of the site.
The Auditorium site covers only the Barbican Centre building. It is an entertainment
venue and not the wider leisure complex with which the Barbican name is historically
linked. The former pool site has been sold for development as a hotel.
The previous mix of entertainment and sports facilities proved highly problematic
which made it impossible to maintain a coherent programme or to respond to market
demand for conference facilities, a subject I referred to when address the previous
motion. This in part, was the source of its commercial troubles and the reason why the
venue required a significant annual Council subsidy. That is why the agreed council
strategy separated out the sports facilities and relocated them.
It is very unlikely that an entertainments venue of the nature of the Barbican could fit
with charitable objectives, which are essential for a trust. Nor would there be
operating advantages. The building needs significant capital investment, which would
not be available to a trust. Trust might play a useful part for sports provision
elsewhere in the city. Officers brought a report on the establishment of a sports trust
to run the council's leisure facilities in December 2003 but the idea was rejected at
that time. The issue is being revisited as a part of the ongoing Leisure and Culture
review. But this is in the context of new or newly refurbished facilities not ones
requiring extensive investment.
I move the amendment.
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